Windsor's unemployment rate sees significant drop

The hike was driven by an increase to the labour force and the number of people claiming unemployment. The feds trimmed the local number of bureaucrats and contractors self-identified as public servants by 4,300 in January, dropping the total to 124,600. Full-time employment is up 558,900 over the past 18 months, near record levels hit in 2000.

In January 2017, the island's labour force consisted of 54,800 people with 47,100 employed and 7,700 unemployed.

Numbers were less rosy nationally.

The biggest loss of jobs in a single month in nine years highlighted January's unemployment figures from Statistics Canada, while Victoria's jobless rate gets closer to four per cent.

But on the other hand, the agency said the economy generated 49,000 full-time positions last month.

"This is a big number on the surface, but so were the gains over the previous several months", Marple wrote in a research note.

Ontario's unemployment rate was 5.5 per cent in January. Unemployment in Canada is at 5.9 per cent, 3.9 per cent in Victoria and 4.8 per cent in Nanaimo.

Canada's economy has still seen employment increase by 288,700 jobs over the past 12 months - 146,000 of which came in November and December. Wage increases for permanent workers increased by 3.3 percent, up from 2.9 percent.

Over that same period, the number of less desirable part-time positions declined by 125,400 or 3.5 per cent.

"The June quarter survey showed zero employment growth and a drop in the participation rate, followed by a surge in both measures in the September quarter", he said.

Ontario hiked minimum wage by some 20 per cent to $14 per hour at the beginning of the year, a move some economists said could result in mass job losses as employers look to reduce costs.